Is Privacy an Over-Rated Legacy of the Past?

The concept of privacy is a tricky one, to say the least.  Most people, when asked for a quick response would likely tell you that privacy is very important to them and that they are concerned about who has access to what they consider “private” data about them.

However, these very same people will create Facebook accounts, wander the web without using any sort of anonymous IP cloaking, send emails without encryption and speak loudly on their cell phones at crowded restaurants.  Many people are surprised to learn that things like your home address, phone number, email and endless other data is already freely (or at least) easily accessible to anyone handy with a few search engines and a database or two.

As we willingly share more and more information about our day-to-day lives via Twitter or Facebook status updates one has to wonder if we might not be better served giving up on this false sense of privacy and just open the floodgates.

As Matt Asay at CNet says:

Think about it. My in-box already knows where I’m traveling, what I buy, etc. because my receipts go there. If someone were to merge this data with my phone records (easily had for the price of my AT&T login credentials), my e-mail log, and my Twitter, IM, and social network data, they’d know exactly who I know and where I’m likely to bump into them…I’d love to automatically be told that my good friend Mike is in London at the same time as I am, and have a service suggest a reservation at a favorite restaurant (which it would know through my past OpenTable reservations). I’d “pay” for that by giving up a lot of data.        LINK

At first glance, this sounds crazy to a lot of people but the question is whether it is more valuable to you to keep your travel plans secret or to make them widely available as a potential way to add value to your travel.  We are already targeted by advertisers for our social behavior and choices made both online and offline, so it’s not especially new, at least in concept, that our personal data could and should be used in this manner.

The larger question is whether or not the whole concept of “privacy” is really just a social concept that is undergoing a major shift.  I am sure that the views on privacy from a sixty-year-old are radically different from those of a twelve-year-old.

According to the AP, this Post Should Cost Me Over $60

In an attempt to demonstrate just how absurd the AP’s new plan is for charging bloggers who want to quote five words from an article $12.50, I present to you what the AP would like to charge more than $60 for me to share with you:

“is good for the economy” – LINK

“didn’t approve the full amount sought” – LINK

“believed to have been arrested”  LINK

“engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, but”  LINK (note: unclear on charge for hyphenated words…)

“World War II may be over”  LINK

Yup, I certainly feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth.  You?

How Will Major Sports Events Respond to iPhone 3GS Video Uploads?

Here’s a question – what are the major sports leagues going to do about fans recording sporting events on their sleek new iPhone 3GS and then uploading it on the spot to YouTube (or another, less monitored website)?

It’s already happening.  YouTube claims that already half of the mobile uploads last week came from an iPhone 3GS and it comes in addition to fans often updating friends and followers on scores and major plays via Twitter or Facebook updates.

How will the leagues control this sort of fan interaction?  Will they try to ban anyone from shooting a picture or video with their phones?  How will they monitor for this?  What will they do when fans are caught?  And how to distinguish between video being taken for personal use and video being taken for a homemade version of SportsCenter you are your friends have just dreamed up.

This is just one of the many challenges facing those who would like to continue to control the flow of content.  This is a losing battle for the people currently (barely) in control.

Dresdon Doll’s Amanda Palmer Makes Almost $20k Via Twitter

Go to this link and read an amazing email written by Amanda Palmer of the band Dresdon Dolls in which she explains how, over the course of three weeks she was able to gross almost $20,000 using Twitter.

In contrast, she also points out that she has made exactly $0.00 for selling over 30,000 solo albums this year.

A sample:

WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm – 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

The biggest take-home lesson for musicians is that Amanda made none of this money by selling albums but she played a ton of music and increased her fan base while having fun and making money.

Now that’s rock ‘n roll.

Gawker Exposes Megan Fox’s Flower-Giver on Facebook

Last week, a very popular photograph circulated of Megan Fox appearantly ignoring a sweet chubby kid trying to give her a flower:

Kodak then announced that it was offering $5000 to anyone who could identify the boy in the photo.

Earlier today, Gawker recieved an email from a young woman claiming to not only know the identity of the young boy but said she was his friend on Facebook.  Eager to confirm this tip, Gawker tried looking up his page but it was set to private.  So, what did Gawker do?

Since the young lad’s Facebook profile was set to private and can only be viewed by his “friends,” we asked Kim to send us some screengrabs of his Facebook page as proof, and she obliged. As you can see from the gallery below, which includes a pic of our boy with one of those little Jonas freaks, it looks as though we may have found the victim of Megan Fox’s smoldering disdain, an 11 year-old Brit named Harvii.

Yup, they posted the whole thing online.  His whole private collection of photos.  All of it.

Now, this is certainly not the first time someone has had their private social media profile published for all the world to see but it is troubling when a major blog, trying to make at least some stab at legitimacy, does it.  We all know that nothing on the web is private but does that mean we should all just disregard anyone’s effort  to even attempt a modicum of privacy.  It’s not like this kid is a legitimate star who’s just asking for attention.

I’d be curious to hear from any lawyers out there if publishing screengrabs of a private Facebook page is in any way a criminal offense.

The Notificator Beat Twitter by Over 70 Years

BoingBoing points out a great story from the archives of Modern Mechanix magazine, a description of a device known as the Notificator:

The user walks up on a small platform in front of the machine, writes a brief message on a continuous strip of paper and drops a coin in the slot. The inscription moves up behind a glass panel where it remains in public view for at least two hours so that the person for whom it is intended may have sufficient time to observe the note at the appointed place. The machine is similar in appearance to a candy-vending device.   LINK

It seems one of these devices was actual put into service in London in 1935 and according to a lengthier description of the device, it looks like it was in service until sometime in 1938.

Sadly, it looks like none of the original paper rolls survived.  That would have been a priceless archive of information about the daily lives of Londoners in the 1930’s.  Actually, it would probably look a lot like my Twitter stream, and thus prove worthless from an historial perspective.

If nothing else, the existence of the Notificator, which is really just a fancy bulletin board, proves that humans have always had the desire to broadcast even their simplest needs into the public ether.

Olivia Munn, Bing-Shilling and the Future of Twitter

I just saw the above tweet in my feed and couldn’t help wondering if this was the unfortunate future of Twitter.

As you may or may not know, Olivia Munn is the sexy and charming co-host of G4’s flagship program “Attack of the Show.”  I really enjoy AOTS and Olivia Munn is a big reason for the show’s relative success.

Usually, her Twitter-feed seems to be a fun mix of personal stuff and pitching ATOS/G4.

The above tweet, though, looks like plain old advertising.  It isn’t fair, I guess, to assume that Olivia is being compensated in some way for this heavily pro-Bing tweet, but it certainly looks that way.

While there is plenty of shilling happening on Twitter, it will be very sad if top tweeters start taking money to tweet “ads” without any mention of this compensation.

Could ID Theft Sink MySpace

There was an interesting piece on NPR’s Weekend Edition this morning about the growing problem of teens stealing each other’s pictures and identities.

Some dishonest users steal images of pretty girls to attract romantic attention. Others grab the photo of someone they dislike to create a fake derogatory profile that makes that person look bad. But for some teens, it’s actually a badge of honor.

While the teen reporter offered a nice range of kids’ responses to this problem, including watermarking pictures or creating supplemental videos, her own experience seemed very telling.

After being hacked herself and having to go through a whole process of reclaiming her identity with MySpace she decided it just wasn’t worth extreme tactics necessary to protect herself on MySpace and so she has cancelled her account.

Now, I am not sure if the same problems exist for Facebook but this could be a very bad sign for MySpace which has relied on it’s younger demographic to keep it relevant in the social media arena.

If a site can’t provide teens with a safe way to post and share content it will likely find itself quickly abandoned.

Watchitoo Has One Great Use. Home Movies.

A new website currently in beta, Watchitoo is a web video site with a twist:

What makes Watchitoo stand out is the synchronized experience. Users watch media and each other, via webcams, at the same time in one browser-based interface. They also can share control of the screen, rather than being restricted to one presenter controlling the content as with a webinar/demo situation. LINK

Now, it seems like the site is focused on groups watching various types of pro content together, like a LOST viewing party in cyberspace but I think they are missing the best market for a service of this kind.  Families and friends sharing home movies.

Think about it for a minute.  You just shot a video of you son taking his first steps.  In minutes you can have it uploaded to Watchitoo, send the link to your son’s grandparents who can jump online and then all of you can watch the video together and enjoy eachothers reactions to the video in realtime.

If this doesn’t sound like a big deal, go ask for a beta invite and try it for yourself.

I witnessed a demo of a very similar website about 18 months ago using the basic scenario I just proposed and an entire hall full of jaded webheads “ooooh”d in unison.

Ashton Hits 1,000,000 Twitter Followers. So, What?

This has clearly been Twitter’s biggest week ever. First Ashton Kutcher, one of the first celebs to take Twitter seriously, challenged CNN to a race to 1,000,000 followers and won.  Then, today, he joined Ev Williams (founder of Twitter) on Oprah, where the big O herself sent her first tweet (in unfortunate Kanye West-style all-caps).

There are plenty of notions to draw out of the rise of Twitter.  It’s still far too soon to know whether this is a massive boom/bust fad or something that is here to stay but I found Pete Cashmore’s comment on Mashable to be the most intriguing:

For now, Twitter needs mainstream media more than mainstream media needs Twitter. But Ashton has an audience of 1 million at his fingertips: how much longer will the talent need its mainstream middleman?

I’ve been wondering along these lines for a while, really pre-Twitter.  With the internet, the doors of distribution have been thrown wide and anyone with a connection can, in theory, reach a worldwide audience via words, sound and video.  Why does someone like Ashton Kutcher really need NBC or Time Warner Cable when they can reach their fans directly and deliver to them solid content?

LINK

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